Film noir

Fallen men, femmes fatale, fatal attractions, dead ends, greed, botched crimes and sexual betrayal: sex and violence are basic to the appeal of films noir. First used by French critics in the late 1940s to describe the disillusioned, stylish mood of many Hollywood crime pictures and melodramas produced during World War II, the term refers to an era ranging from the early 1940s through the late 1950s (though "neo noir" films continued to be made ever after). The noir style owes to both expressionism and realism: night scenarios, strong shadows, low-key lighting, dynamic compositions, hardboiled dialogue, flashbacks, fragmented narratives and fluid camera movements.